Tired

I'm very tired. I've been demoing the Cricut for the past 8 days and it's been fun playing with the new cartridges.

Update

Got my pictures from Costco, came home, tried one more time, it worked. Of course. But that's ok. I think it's God's way of telling me to take things carefully, one thing at a time. Today I am finishing up getting things together to take to Karen's crop. I'll drop that off in a little bit. Costco said we can come in tonight before 8:00 pm to set up our display instead of coming in at 6:00 am! YES! Gives me a bit more time for sleep and not a 14 hour day!! I've been putting a hotel bag together for the crop, a back for work and trying to clean up for jeff. Luckily I get to sleep in my own bed but if it gets bad I'll get a room up by work. Gotta go!

Frustration

Ok, I think I'm doomed not to make this challenge for the dirtyscraps.blogspot.com!!! Last night I figured out one of my peeves, not a big deal thing, just one of those that is aggravating. I won't give it away because I'm a fighter and I WILL get this done. I got the journalling all done and I took my pictures today. Now I am trying to put them onto my pc. Now I'm not very computer savvy, but I'm trying. I got a new camera for my birthday and I have Photoshop which I can do some things with. BUT, the memory card won't find in the slots on my laptop. AND I can't find the cord to attach the camera. So you see why I think I'm being messed with.

I did find a new scrapbook store locally. Serendipity is in Bartlett and is so cute! They have a small space in Banbury Fair and are hosting their first crop this weekend. 30 people have signed up so she's off to a great start.

Crop

Got so much done for the crop for next weekend. I'll mainly be at Costco in Mt. Prospect working for Provo Craft but when I'm not there I will be at Eaglewood Resort in Itasca helping Karen with the crop. There are so many fun things planned! Like carrying peanuts across the room with chopsticks!! lol That will be interesting!

Today is my daughter's 19th birthday. Where did the time go???

CHA

CHA is coming, CHA is coming! Alas, I shall not be there. I'm going to be doing a Provo Craft/Costco Road Show BUT look for me at the summer one here in Chicago. CHA is the big Craft and Hobby Association convention and it is so exciting! You get to see sneak peeks at all the new products that have been created by the big designers as well as the new people. Many people have left companies to form their own and things are hopping in the industry. I've been watching different people and really like Margie Romney-Aslett's new line.

Back to school

My boy left to go back to school today. He has 2 semesters left to go. Where did the time go? He will have a degree in English then get a teaching certificate so he can teach. He's excited. but of course it makes me feel old! My daughter turns 19 on Wednesday. It's coming from both sides. Brittany will go to the community college this semester which I think is a good idea tho she thinks since our agreement is that we pay room and board and she pays tuition is that we give her the money we would be paying for room and board since she'll be living at home. Um, excuse me? Sometimes I wonder where she came from. She sometimes has this "entitled" attitude. Like for her birthday she thinks nothing of asking for 5 different kinds of perfume and being a bit put out that she didn't get all 5. Anyway back to scrapping.
I applied for a design team and I'm excited about it. It's a brand new blog called "dirtyscraps" and the premise is to remember to scrap those not quite so perfect moments too since they are parts of your life and quite frankly, they do help form who you are. I think it's a fantastic idea and it helps put the focus back onto the subject rather than the embellishments used. They are having their first challenge and that is to scrap a peeve. I think I may do one about the lack of customer service. I was at Wal-Mart the other day buying a new area rug for the family room and the cashier was very nice and it surprised me. I try to be but it seems so many people aren't and that's so wrong. So, I will show my layout here as well as put it on the other blog.

Friday!

Ok, snow is EVERYWHERE!!!! Personally I think we've met our quota for the winter but somehow I have a feeling I'm wrong. That's Chicago for you. You know what, I really like living here. It's been "home" for a long time now and apart from the time we spent living in Hong Kong it's all my kids have known. I guess that whatever you grow up in becomes what you are used to. For instance, I couldn't see myself living in Alaska, but I guess if that's where I had grown up it wouldn't bother me. I lived in St. Louis for many years but I'd take chicago winters over them any day. Chicago is known as the windy city but that is because of the politicians full of hot air, not the wind! Did you know that? And as far as lake effect snow goes---if you look at a map, that goes to Indiana so I'm pretty safe though if you look outside you'd wonder where all the snow did come from!! lol

Last night I got my bedroom cleaned up. Dresser cleaned off, nightstand as well as the floor in front of it. I tend to do a lot of reading and puzzles in bed then drop them next to my bed so there was quite a collection. Oh, I have a sleigh bed that is pretty high that I have to jump to get into it so it's just easier to drop stuff than jump out of bed, put it away then climb back in. You know, I actually slept better without the chaos. I didn't realize that until now. Hmm. Interesting.

Snow Day!!

Ok, snow is piling up everywhere! Played with my cricut today. Made my son a cool vinyl dragon for his laptop and it turned out pretty cool. I'll try and write up the steps with pictures by Sunday. We also put a rose and our family quote. Erik was in England over the summer studying at Oxford and did a little research on our last name and came up with a few things. Tho I think WHITE might be a bit common, but who knows. I signed up for Ancestry.com to find out more on my side of the family. I've been following a few people on twitter and entered an '80's movie trivia contest on thepioneerwoman.com site. I think I may have won but I'm waiting patiently, ok, not so patiently, to find out. Will keep you posted.

Tuesday Erik and I put together several wooden puzzles for the Chinese New Year crop and they are so cool. I'll have to put pics here too. I did the Temple of Happiness that is in Bejing and Erik made a cool dragon/phoenix. They are 3-d and pretty impressive. I'm going to go check pioneer woman's blog....

Karen's Crop 2010

Met with my friend Karen today and we got some things figured out for the chinese New Year crop. It's going to be exciting tho I won't be around for a lot of it. I start back up with the ProvoCraft/Costco Road Shows. I'll be in Mt. Prospect, IL.

The crop is at Eaglewood Resort in Itasca, IL and we have 67 people signed up! Like I said the theme is Chinese New Year and it's going to be fun! We have games planned around the theme, a chinese dinner on Saturday night and lots of chinese goody bag items.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

It's 2010 and do you have any goals for the new year? I decided not to do "resolutions" because they usually fall by the wayside quickly so I am approaching things a little different. My yahoo group members each pick a word that they use to describe their year and mine for 2010 is EMPOWERMENT. This stems from a series of articles I've read about procrastination. Which is what I am the queen of and it's time to get a handle on it. I wanted to find a word that described the opposite of procrastination and I believe empowerment is pretty spot on. I want to be empowered to take action on those things that I do have control over and also SERENITY over those I have no control over. For those of you who know about 12 step programs these sound a bit familiar, right? I was raised by alcoholics and have lead conventions for adult children so using these words feel right and comfortable.
For those who know me I have been having a love/hate relationship with my scraproom for YEARS!! Literally. On one hand I think it needs to be perfect, so I don't attack it. On the other hand I have too much scrap stuff, yes that IS possible so organizing it is overwhelming so, I don't attack it but keep buying. These are things I have to work on. So, thinking about the best way to get a handle on things seem to be on order but I still need to take action in order to actually be creative so space is imperative. I have "oozed" all over the house and it is uncomfortable for everyone. Chaos has been such a large part of my life over many years and since I turn 50, yes 50 this year, it's time to scale back and assess the needs. So, must purge! Donate, and feel free to create!
Watch 2010!!!